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⛵️ Veliky Ustyug: The city from which Russia reached the Pacific

Friends, today we are traveling to the north of Russia, to where the Sukhona and Yug rivers converge to form the Northern Dvina. In the Middle Ages, this was a major water-transport junction—from here, it was possible to reach the White Sea and travel far to the east via rivers and portages.

Welcome to Veliky Ustyug.

🛤 The Cradle of Explorers

In the 17th century, Russia’s intensive expansion into Siberia began. The residents of Ustyug were right at the forefront—as merchants, explorers, and seafarers.

Semyon Dezhnev, who came from Veliky Ustyug, rounded the Chukchi Peninsula in 1648 and crossed the strait between Asia and America—80 years before Vitus Bering. The easternmost point of the Asian mainland, Cape Dezhnev, now bears his name.

Vladimir Atlasov, one of the key figures in Russia’s expansion into Kamchatka, also came from Veliky Ustyug. At the end of the 17th century, he led a major expedition to the peninsula and made a significant contribution to bringing Kamchatka under Russian control.

This creates an astonishing connection: a small northern city produced men whose journeys ultimately took them all the way to the Pacific.

🏛 The Golden Age of Trade

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Ustyug was a prosperous merchant center. Furs, flax, hemp, grain, and other goods were transported through the city, and bustling trade took place along the riverbanks.

But Veliky Ustyug was not merely a transshipment point. The city developed its own craft traditions. It became particularly famous for niello, known as “Northern chern”—an elaborate technique in which dark ornaments are created on silver.

This craft reached its peak in the 18th century. The tradition has survived to this day and still ranks among the city’s best-known arts and crafts.

🧭 The End of an Era

Then geography turned against Veliky Ustyug. Following the founding of Saint Petersburg in 1703 and the increasing shift of Russian foreign trade to the Baltic Sea, the old northern trade routes gradually lost their importance.

The major flows of goods bypassed Ustyug, and the city lost part of its former economic significance.

Yet this was precisely what allowed its historic character to remain largely intact. Veliky Ustyug did not develop into a major industrial center, and numerous merchant houses, churches, and historic streets survived the centuries that followed.

🏛 An Architectural Jewel

The Sobornoye Dvorishche, the city’s historic center, is particularly impressive. Several important churches and cathedrals stand here, their silhouettes continuing to define the banks of the Sukhona to this day.

Along the river and on the old streets, numerous stone churches from the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as former merchant houses, have been preserved.

Thus, Veliky Ustyug still tells the story of a time when trade routes and expeditions originated from this small city in the Russian north—routes and expeditions that ultimately reached all the way to the Pacific.

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📍 The coordinates of the place are available here

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